Learning from 'lived expertise: engaging athletes and patients in sport and exercise medicine research and policy

Athletes’ and patients’ perspectives are critical in Sport and Exercise Medicine research1 and the voices of those most impacted by research, policy development and implementation must be actively engaged throughout the process—‘nothing about us, without us’. Athletes know about their experiences in ways that researchers/clinicians cannot, unless they live with the same conditions or injuries. For this reason, they bring ‘lived expertise’ that complements and is of equal importance to the scientific and medical expertise of others on the team. They bring different ways of thinking about problems and solutions, including context about their lives and jobs, which may not even be considered by others on the team whose experiences may be very different. Since the British Medical Journal’s 2014 launch of its patient partnership strategy, most articles continue to be directed ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ rather than ‘with’ or ‘by’ patients and the public.2...
Source: British Journal of Sports Medicine - Category: Sports Medicine Authors: Tags: BJSM Editorial Source Type: research